Šeit normāls paskaidrojums skaidrā angļu valodā, kāpēc šodien streiko Padomes ierēdņi.
SALARY ADJUSTMENT: what is happening?
At the issue of today’s Interinstitutional General Assembly, staff of the Council of the European Union decided to strike on Thursday 17 December to secure compliance with the salary adjustment method, under which they are entitled to a 3.7% annual salary adjustment.
The salaries and pensions of the European civil service as a whole are adjusted annually in accordance with a method negotiated with the Member States for a ten-year period which ensures that European officials’ purchasing power keeps pace with that of national officials. This method makes it possible to avoid annual conflicts (which could considerably disturb the Council’s activities) and, unlike a mere indexation, automatically reflects Member States’ wage policies, irrespective of whether this means an increase or a reduction.
The adjustment of + 3,7 % may seem surprising in the current economic context. It is based on:
- inflation measured by the “Brussels international index” for the same period : + 0,9 % ;
- the change in purchasing power of national officials in 8 Member States in the July 2008-June 2009 period (GDP-weighted average) : + 2,8 % (BE : + 4,4 %; DE : + 3,1 %; ES : + 4,3 %; FR : +3,8 %; IT : + 2,4 %; LU : + 4,5 %; NL : +2,3 % and UK : + 0,3 %).
Brussels international index
The Brussels international index takes account of the consumption patterns of international officials in Brussels. Some goods and services are not weighted in the same way as in the Belgian index. Heating costs, for example, have a lower weighting. This explains why the international index increased by only 4,4% in 2007-2008 whereas the Belgian index rose by 5,2 %. For 2008-2009, the international index increased by 0,9% while the Belgian index fell by 0,7%. The two indices give very similar results over a longer period..
Changes in purchasing power in national civil services
The change in the purchasing power of national civil servants corresponds to a salary increase of 2,8 % in a context of very low or even negative inflation in certain countries. The wage restraint imposed on civil servants in Member States due to the economic situation will automatically be reflected, as was the case several times since 2002, in the annual adjustment at the end of 2010 (on the basis of the figures from July 2009 to June 2010), which will probably be very small, if not negative, for the European civil service.
It should also be noted that 8 Member States (BE, DE, ES, FR, IT, LU, NL and UK) rather than 27 are taken as the basis for comparison, although certain new Member States in particular have been hit hardest by the economic situation. This limitation was decided on for practical reasons but also to prevent European officials from “unduly” benefiting from national wage increases in the new Member States. If all 27 Member States had been included in the calculations, the increases would in fact have been approximately 1,8 % higher for 2004-2008 and probably a few tenths of 1% lower in 2009.
Salary concessions
The first salary adjustment method was achieved in the 70s after long drawn-out industrial action. Since 1981, it has been extended every ten years or so, also after rather protracted and arduous negotiations. Each time, it has been the result of a compromise which also includes the following salary concessions by the staff, in addition to the loss of purchasing power already mentioned above:
- a crisis levy/temporary contribution/special levy which will now exceed 5 % ;
- the increase in social contributions (in particular the pension contribution) being taken into account twice: if national civil servants’ social contributions increase, their purchasing power falls and this decrease is reflected in European officials’ salaries by the salary adjustment method. But European officials’ own social contributions have increased, resulting in a 3 % loss of purchasing power since 2004.
Conclusions
When European officials and other staff demand full compliance with the method for adjusting their salaries, even under the current economic situation, it is because they know that the method takes account of the economic situation, given that Member States adjust their wage policies in accordance with that situation. Wage restraint put into effect by the Member States this year will have an impact on our salaries next year. Some people are already forecasting salary reductions in 2010 not only in terms of purchasing power but even in nominal terms. This means that European officials could see a nominal reduction of their wages and have to reimburse the excess that they had in theory been paid over a six-month period.
Failure to comply fully with the method for adjusting the remuneration of the European public service on account of the economic and social context means a return to the annual conflicts that the method was designed to prevent.
Pēdējie komentāri